HISTORICAL REVIEW OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 



89 



felt to be insignificant and scarcely worthy consideration when compared with the more 

 tangible terrors of unlimited liability. The lottery tickets were therefore disposed of, and 

 the scheme successfully completed before the law could be set in motion against it. 



The practical genius of Wentworth did not exhaust itself in the framing of a 

 Lottery Bill. Among other measures he introduced and carried a Bill to legalise liens 



GOVERNMENT HOUSE, SYDNEY. 



on wool and mortgages of stock, which 

 ultimately became law although dis- 

 allowed in the first instance by the 



Home Government as, to quote Lord Stanley's despatch, " irreconcilably opposed to 

 the principles of legislation immemorially recognized in this country respecting the 

 alienation or pledging of things movable." It was not only the means of affording 

 relief to the settlers at that time, but it has since proved to be one of the most 

 practically useful measures known to colonial law. The idea was taken from the practice 

 of the sugar-planters in the West Indies, among whom it had long been customary to 

 mortgage not only their sugar crops, but the negroes who cultivated them. 



A more practical remedy than legislation, however, was needed to revive the flagging 

 industries of the colony, particularly on the sheep and cattle stations. A settler at 

 Yass, named Henry O'Brien, hit upon a happy idea which did more to restore prosperity 

 than anything that mere legislation could effect. As Wentworth had taken a hint from 

 the West Indies, so O'Brien availed himself of a knowledge of the practice in Russia, 

 where surplus stock was boiled down for fat, and the trade in tallow was large and 

 profitable. Boiling-clown began at Yass in January, 1843, and the results showed that 

 at least six shillings a head might be obtained for ordinary sheep. The effect was 

 magical. Sheep and cattle at once rose in value ; boiling-down became universal 



